The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-08-17
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Employments of Heaven.

TEXT: "No,c it came to pass in the hir hir
tieth year, in the fourth month, tn the JJth
day Of the month, as I,Uas among the cap
.tires by the rirer of Chebar, that the hedrens
srere opened. l.. l.
Ezekiel, with others, had been e1patriated,
and while in foreign slavery was standing on
the banks of the royal canal which he and
other serfs had been condemned to dig by the
order Of buchadnezzar-this royal canal
in the text, called the river OF Chebar; the
'fllustrious exile had visions Of Heaven. In
deed, it is almost always so that the brightest
visions of heaven come not to those VINO are
on mountain tops Of prosperity, but 70 some
John on desolate Patmos, or to some Paul IN
Mamertine dungeon, or to some EzeHlel
standing on the banks OF ditch he has been
compelled to dig-yea, to the weary, 70 tne
heart broken, to those whom sorrow mas oan-
fshed.
The text is very particular to give us the
exact time Of the vision. 1t was in the thir-
tieth year, and in the fourth month, and IN
the fifth day Of the month. So you have had
visions of earth you shall never forget. You
remember the year, you remember the month,
you remember the day, you remember tue
hour. why may not we have some such
vision this morning, and it be in the sixth
month, and in the fourth day Of the month!
The question is often silently asked, though
perhaps never audibly propounded: what
are our departed Christian friends DONG
now" The question is more easily answered
than you might perhaps suppose. Ihoush
there has come no recent intelligence from
the heavenly city, and we seem dependent
upon the story Of eighteen centuries ago, stu
Think we may from strongest inference De.
eide what are the present occupations Oh OUT
transferred kinsfolk.
After God has made a nature he never
-eradicates the chief characteristics OF us
Ina
phlegmatio in temperament to become san
;0uine in temperament. You never kne" q
man sanguine in temperament to become
.phlegmatic in temperament. conversion
plants new principles in the soul, but Paul
and John are just as different from each
other after conversion as they were dinerent
from each other before conversion. II con-
version does rot eradicate the prominent
characteristics of the temperament neither
will death eradicate them.
You have, then, only by sum in subtrac-
ton and sum in addition to decide ~naC are
the employments of your departed friends IN
the better world. You are to subtract from
them all earthly grossness and add all earthly
goodness, and then you are to come TO the
Conclusion that they are doing now in heaven
what in their best moments they did on earth.
The reason that so many people never start Tor
heaven is because they could not stand II II
they got there if it should turn out to be the
rigid and formal place some people pnoto-
graph it. ,,,,s
not want to stay here till next Christmas.
We like to hear the Hallelujah Chorus, but
we would not want to hear it all the time for
ffty centuries It might be on some great
occasion it would be possibly comfortable 70
wear a crown Of gold weighing several
pounds, but it would be an attilctlon TO wear
such a crown forever. In other words, we
run the descriptions OF Heaven INTO the
ground while we make that which was IN
tended as especial and celebrative to be the
exclusive employment Of Heaven. You
might as we'll, if asked to describe the habits
of American society. describe Decoration
Day, or Fourth Of July, or an autumnal
Thanksgiving as though it were all the time
that way.
lam not going to speculate in regard to the
future world, but ! must by inevitable laws
of inference and deduction and common
sense conclude that in Heaven we will be just
as different from each other as we are now
different, and hence, that there will be at
least as many different employments In the
celestial world as there are employments
here Christ is to be the great love, the
great Joy, the great rapture, the great worship
. Of Heaven but will that abolish employments
No more than loves on earth-paterna',
Hlial, fraternal, conjugal love-abolish earthly
occupation.
In the first place, remark that all those Of
our departed Christian friends who on earth
found great joy in the fine arts are now IN
dulging their tastes in the same direction. On
e. -th they had their gladdest pleasures amid
pictures ana ssatuary, and in the study OF the
laws of light and shade and perspective.
Have you any idea that that aftluence OF
faculty at death collapsed and persisted!
Why so, when there is more for them to look
at, and they have keener appreciation OF the
beautiful, and they stand amid the very
looms where the sunsets and the ralnbows
and the spring mornings are woven!
Are you so obtuse as to suppose that because
the painter drops his easel and the sculptor
his chisel and the engraver his knife, that
therefore that taste, which he was enlarging
and intenSifying for forty or fifty years-ls
entirely obiiteratedf These artists, or these
friends Of art on earth worked In coarse
material and with imperfect brain and with
frail hand. Now they have carried their art
into larger liberties ard into wider circum-
ference. They are at their old business yet,
but without the fatigueS, without the llmlta-
tions, without the hindranceS Of the terres-
trial studio.
Raphael could now improve upon his mas
terpiece Of Michael the Archangel now
that he has seen him, and could improve upon
his masterpiece of the Holy Family now that
he has visited them. Michael Angelo could
seen its flash and heard the rumbling batter
ing rams Of its thunder. Exquisite colors
here, graceful lines here, powerful chiaros-
euro here: but am persuaded that the gran
der studios and the brighter galleries are
higher up by the winding marble stairs
of the sepulchre, and that Turner, and Hol-
man, and Hunt, and Rembrandt, and Titan,
and Paul Veronese, if they exercised SAVING
faith in the Christ whom they portrayed up
on the canvas. are painters vet, but their
strength of faculty multiplied ten-thousand
fold. The reason that God took away their
eve and their hand, and their brain was that
he might give them something more Timber,
more wieldly, more skilful, more multipli-
tant
Do not therefore, be melancholy among
the tapestries, and the bric-a-bric, and the
works of art which your departed friends
used to admire. Do not say: Il am sorry
they had to leave all these things" Rather
say: 81 am glad they have gone up to higher
artistic opportunity and appreciation" Our
friends who found so much JOY in the fine
arts on earth are now lu1uriating IN Lorvres
and Lu1embourgs celestial.
remark again, that all our departed
Christian friends who in this world were
passionately fond Of music are still regaling
that taste in the world celestial. The Bible
eays so much about the music OF Heaven
that it cannot all be hgurative., The Bible
over and over again speaks OF the songs OF
Heaven. If Heaven had no songs OF It's owr
a vast number Of those Of earth would have
been taken up by the earthly emigrants
Surely the Christian at death does not loSt
mis- memory. Then there must be millions o.
souls in Heaven who know Coronation, "
and Antioch and 'Mount Pisgah," and
"Old Hundred" The leader of the eternal
orchestra need only once tap his baton and